Online Reporter
Fadzayi Maposah-Correspondent
The smile was real, genuine. It showed dark gums against very white even teeth. It was flawless.
I looked at her in awe. I was hoping that I was not staring. Whatever the lady next to her was saying was good, because she kept smiling.
As I sat opposite them, I could not hear complete parts of their conversation.
I simply concluded that it was a pleasant one. They were both comfortable with each other. Then they opened a pack of potato crisps and they began to eat, continuing with their conversation.
From the way they were behaving, it seemed that they were waiting for someone. The phone rang and the other lady, not the one whose smile I described earlier, handed it over to the other.
They described where they were and said that they would wait until the person who was calling arrived. The Smile Lady urged the caller to be quick as she was afraid that it would start raining. It has been raining a lot and some areas have gone without the bright sun for a few days.
The rains have caught many unawares. The day that one carries an umbrella, it does not rain and the umbrella is like an unnecessary burden.
Commuter omnibuses are home to lost umbrellas as passengers who disembark when the rains have stopped forget them. I guess that is the advantage of using a raincoat, one will actually be wearing it. Back to the Smile Lady.
I watched as someone approached their bench. From the look on their faces, it was the person that they had been expecting. There were hugs and pleasantries exchanged. The one who had come was louder than the two, and I could easily pick and follow their conversation.
The tailor was waiting for them, the new arrival said. It was important that they got there as soon, she said. They should not allow the tailor to give excuses that they had not submitted their measurements timeously, and as a result the tailor had failed to deliver their garments on the agreed dates.
Tailors will humble you, I said to myself as I followed the discussion on the sidelines, totally uninvited! I have had my own nasty experiences with them. Tailors will tell you with so much confidence that they will get things done on time, and then disappoint you when the timelines are not met.
I know of people who have been so upset with tailors that they have sat nearby as they worked on their garments. The tailor would have been told that the client is not leaving the room until they have the garment.
Many years ago, tailors would blame the electricity outages, what is their excuse now since there is consistent power supply?
I have concluded that some tailors are not able be honest when their plates are full. They keep taking orders and then have to lie so that they still have more business.
As they were standing up to leave, the lady who had arrived last, looked at the Smile Lady and told her how beautiful she was. Black and beautiful, she said.
The lady smiled, really smiled and from where I sat the dark gums were visible. Then the other lady said; “Tigokuona wakuita zvekuda kutsvuka semango inotsvuka yakura.” (We do not want to see you bleaching your skin, being like a mango that ripens when it matures.)
The two agreed that they would beat her up the Smile Lady if she bleached her skin.
They playfully touched her cheeks and she smiled again. They picked up their bags and walked away, talking and laughing in the process. I watched until they disappeared into the crowds.
I love sitting in public spaces. There is just so much to see and learn. There are no explanations why you are seated where you are, and how long that you will be there. I was beginning to think that no one would come and sit with me during my observation time, until a couple came along. I shifted to the end of the bench.
The woman was very light in complexion. As she eased herself into the bench, I could not help but to notice that her hands were much darker than her hands. She was an example of what that the ladies who had left had referred to.
The hands do not get light as the face does. Instead one ends up with different coloured body parts. As she arranged her things in the shopping bags, I could not help but wonder why she had bleached her face.
The hands were totally different from her face. She was like two people, one with the face looking down and the other one with the dark hands arranging the groceries.
People are bleaching their skins. Someone that you knew as dark can shock you when later you meet them and they are way lighter. Sadly, it seems that being light skinned is very popular with many. It seems that people are no longer comfortable in their real skin.
Whoever said that being light means that one is beautiful has misled many people? Sadly there are many who quickly jump on the train to be light-skinned.
Really whose fault is it that many people are not happy with the complexion that they were born with? What kind of a world would it be if we were all the same?
As she packed her bags, I went on my phone and looked up the dangers of using skin lightening creams.
I learnt that some lightening creams act like a paint stripper, removing the top layer of skin. That alone was enough to have me worried. Which means if the top layer of the skin is removed, these people are prone to health conditions that may include skin cancer.
Remember how rain water washes away the top skin and the area becomes prone to soil erosion?
Why erode your skin just to be lighter? There is need to instil self-worth in people from a young age so that they know that they are enough just as they are.
This Women’s Month, help someone to appreciate themselves just as they are. #Women’sMonth
